What is “Cycling” in relation to forced air heating systems?
Forced air heating systems operate on a cycle as follows: 1. You turn up your thermostat or the room temperature falls below the setting you have made on your thermostat. 2. The thermostat (which is just an on/off switch) opens a valve which allows gas to flow to the burners of your furnace. (Before the valve opens, the electricity from the thermostat must first flow through a couple of safety devices to ensure the pilot light is on, etc.) 3. The burners in the furnace heat up the heat exchanger and a sensor on the heat exchanger determines that a pre-set temperature has been reached. The sensor (which is another on/off switch) turns on the blower. 4. The blower takes cool return air from your furnace room, through a filter and blows it up into your rooms. 5. The temperature in your rooms rises until the thermostat senses that the desired temperature has been reached and it shuts off the gas valve to your furnace burners. 6. The blower continues to run until another sensor recognizes t
